Soviet Log 83
Mitigating the Apocalypse We picked up the action in block 4 for a war council (shared big-talk block) with all of our allies. There was a lot of debate but we eventually zeroed in on a plan to heist the nazi relic from the blimp and then drop the blimp on the Forum to disrupt any attempt at a ritual they may have. After that we would disrupt the Vatican ritual directly via a sneaky attack. Gio and Lilyana made a surprise announcement. They had built a 'relic substitute' artifact that could be used in the Herald ritual (it also acted as a ritual altar). The catch was that to use it they would need to sacrifice themselves. They seemed pretty willing to do this since they were both feeling pretty grim about the whole Nazi necro-nano infection thing. We debated the merits of using this option with most of they party deciding that human sacrifice was line they were not willing to cross (so lightly). The resident doctors feel confident that a cure can be achieved, but wether or not we can find the time before the infection kills or permanently alters them is a different story. Once we had a rough idea of what we wanted to do we dove into the details. With a bit more deliberation, we realized that we needn't' actually enter the Vatican to disrupt their ritual if we could simply cut it off from any ley line power. We decided that a lazy loop around the Vatican planing disruption nanites at key locations with timers would probably be enough. With that figured out, we turned our attention back to the Nazis. Getting into the blimp would be tough but Katya found the key when she found Blimp officers on shore leave. They had a regular schedule that saw them land in block 5 and return in block 1 (and vice versa). We figured that we should be able to kidnap them after they land and then interrogate them for a block so that we could impersonate them on the return trip. That should get us into the blimp at least. Unfortunately, due to Katya taking extreme care not to expose any of her info gathering she just barely made the check and was unable to glean more info like the internal layout of the blimp or where the relic was stored. Danikov and the Arab General, managed to get schematics of a blimp similar to the one we were going to infiltrate. Overall, it looked pretty much like the one we crashed in Moscow. The outstanding questions were whether they had added a redundant engine, how to drop the blimp on the Forum, and where the relic might be. We did not find answers. We do know that the blimp has been reinforced in order to prevent what we did last time so we should be thinking about alternate methods of bringing the blimp down. The only idea floated so far is to hijack the control surfaces so that we can steer the airship without messing with the engine. On the topic of rituals, we determined that there were really only two main locations that would be used to gain control of the Herald since a relic and an alter was needed. The Pope Castle and Son's of Peace were more of a way to assist/deny the main rituals. We decided to focus on the main sites and have the NPCs focus on the others. There was concern about the unknown but confirmed activities at the Pope castle. We asked the prologue party to investigate this but they failed repeatedly to get much info. The Nazis also reached out to us via Tatyana who had spent a torrid night with Katya and her friends the night before but disguised as Natalia (fashion model). After reporting back to her Nazi overlords that she had located us (thanks Kat), she arranged a meeting with Katya. They had an offer. They asked us what we wanted in exchange for letting them complete their business in Rome. Katya tried to get a bit more info out of her but she was focused on the deal. We said we'd get back to them. Internally, we agreed that a large financial sum and then something ambitious like 'control of the papacy' would be a good counteroffer (with no plan to actually follow through with our part). It seems pretty obvious that whatever we ask for the Nazis will want assurances from us. Kat is confident that she can persuade them to trust us. Eva feels quite sure they will see right through the rouse (money? Really? Who the fuck cares about money?). In the next block Roq and Eva started work on the first batch of ley line blocking nanites. Eva was dissmayed to learn that the nanites required nano materials as building supplies, after pulling a Gordon Ramsey style rant at Roq she made her peace with the fact that the dream of using the nanites to block both the nazis and the papacy was simply not going to happen and that we in fact needed to enlist Lisolette to help or we simply were not going to have the blocks we needed to even just block the Vatican. So while Roq and Eva were working on the nano materials Lisolette set to work getting up to speed on the research so that she could help out with the nano projects later. As Mei and Roq, turned in for the night, Katya and Eva continued their evenings work. Katya determined that getting a Cryptography training manual was of paramount importance. So she headed out to an underground hacker bar where she secured one. Eva spent the block making Kat’s, Lisolette’s, Roq’s and her own weapons silver. Of course she also added her ever-stylish red pinstripes so now all our weapons match. Hopefully we don’t end up wasting the silver on a bunch of street toughs or some other distraction, but even if we do, at least we will look good while doing it. The next morning Roq and Eva got right to work building the first batch of ley line blockers, giving Lisolette the block to do any final touches she needs before the big event. Mei enlisted Lilyana’s help to finish up her arch penetration spell, while Kat had a leisurely breakfast and went for nice morning stroll (some are starting to question her dedication to the cause). We left things right at the start of block 2. Rewards 11 Generic Katya 3 Random Points and 1 Benny Eva 1 Benny Roq 1 Benny Category:Soviet